Patent GB-530757-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to apparatus for setting bowling pins upon the bed of abowling alley
IPC: A63D5/08
Filed: 1939-07-03
Abstract: 530,757. Bowling alleys.. TRIGGS, W. W. (Bowling Patents Management Corporation.). July 3, 1939, No. 19280. [Class 132 (ii)] In a bowling alley apparatus wherein the bowling-pins are set in position on the bed of the alley by a vertically movable carrier, a transfer mechanism is provided for removing the required number of pins from a magazine and delivering them to (or arranging them for delivery to) the carrier when the carrier occupies its pin receiving position. Assuming that a group of pins 45 has been set up on the alley bed 40 and that the pin-setting carrier 65 has stopped at the intermediate position shown in Fig. 1, the player throws the first ball to knock down some of the pins, and the ball passes on to a platform 154. The platform tilts and closes two switches 278, 396. The switch 278 starts a reversible motor 277 which raises a rack 269. Tappets on the rack control a valve 256 connected to a suction-producer 353 and cooperating with a cylinder 241 to cause a suction cup 249, to descend and pick up the ball, raise the ball through a pair of pivoted gates 281 and after breaking the suction allow the ball to roll down to a stop 286 and thence to the ball-return runway. A trip arm on the rack 269 actuates a reversing switch and the parts return to initial position. The closing of the switch 396 starts up a motor 359 connected to the pin-setting carrier 65 by cables 105. The carrier is allowed to descend until suction cups 90 thereon engage the heads of the upstanding pins, a timing switch at this time causing reversal of the motor 359 to cause the carrier to ascend. The suction-producer 353 maintains a suction in the cups 90 as the pins are carried up, this suction being controlled by a valve 125 operated by the downward movement of the carrier. During the upward movement of the carrier a valve 292 is operated to cause a suction cylinder 287 to lower a pinsweeper 338 and by means of cylinders 336 automatically controlled by a valve 339 to cause the sweeper to advance and push the fallen pins on to the platform 154 from which they pass beneath the usual buffer 158 to an elevator. When the carrier 65 has risen to its intermediate position the timing mechanism again reverses the motor 359 and the carrier again moves downward to reset the lifted pins on the bed 40 in readiness for the rolling of the second ball. At the end of the downward movement the valve 125 is automatically opened to atmosphere to release the reset pins from the cups, the motor 359 is again reversed to raise the carrier until it reaches its uppermost position and the circuit of the motor is opened. In approaching this uppermost position, the carrier raises a rack bar 235 thereby rocking a series of rails 210 each carrying a trolley 215 from which a bowling pin is suspended by a suction cup 217. As the rails are rocked the bowling pins are lifted out of a magazine 193 and the trolleys run down the rails and deposit the pins heads downward into wire guards 87 containing suction cups 82. When the second ball is thrown at the remaining upstanding pins, the presence of the ball on the platform 154 again starts the motors 277 and 359 and in a manner similar to that described above, the second ball is returned by the suction device 241, the carrier 65 (with the new set of pins) is moved downward and the sweeper 338 removes any remaining pins from the bed 40. During the downward movement of the carrier 65 a valve on the carrier is operated by a tappet 123 to cause suction to be applied to the suction cups 82, an arm on the carrier enters a branch track 48 and causes the carrier to be inverted to place the pins correctly on the alley bed, the suction in the cups 82 is broken, and the timing mechanism reverses the motor 359 to cause the carrier to rise again to its intermediate position thus completing the cycle of operations. In the event of the first ball knocking down all the pins, the carrier 65 on its first downward movement slightly prolongs its movement owing to non-engagement with upstanding pins, and a rod 450 on the carrier makes contact with the alley bed and is thereby displaced so as to rearrange the electric circuits and cause the mechanism to continue its cycle of operations without interruption until a new set of pins has been set up. The pins swept on to the platform 154 roll to an elevator 170 and are discharged by carrier arms 165 down a shoot 183 whence they pass with the assistance of rotating impellers 196 to the magazine 193. In a modified apparatus wherein the ball-lifting suction device 241 is dispensed with, the ball and the pins swept from the alley bed are received in a tiltable trough which is automatically raised by a motor to deliver the ball to the ball-return runway and discharge the pins to the coveyer. The pins after being lifted by the conveyer are delivered on to a moving belt and thence are fed along a pair of slightly inclined feed screws rotating in the same direction, the pins being finally aligned between a similar pair of screws constituting the magazine. Specifications 519,929 and 521,201 are referred to.